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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Dark Knight Rises-How to End a Series

I finally saw The Dark Knight Rises. I’m sure that many of you haven’t seen it
yet, so I promise no spoilers, and I’m even hesitant to give it too much praise
because that can raise expectations, and I don’t want anyone to be disappointed
because they were expecting more, but I’m going to say it anyway. I thought The Dark Knight Rises was the best
of the trilogy.

The others were very close, maybe even too close to
say. All three movies go together in a
cohesive way that they can almost be thought of as one story. And I think that this has to do with why this
final movie was so satisfying. If we
look at all the movies as the journey of Bruce Wayne, it could be thought of as
one movie, and I think that is the importance of a trilogy or a series, that it
all fits together, and on some level, the whole thing is one story.

I think this is really tough to pull off and why so rarely
does a series end strong. X-men,
Spiderman, even the Hunger Games series all failed to achieve this, just to
name a few. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed
all those movies and Mockingjay, but they weren’t strong finishes and did not
leave me with a sense of satisfaction that this movie did.

I don’t want to imply that this movie had a happy
ending. I don’t need a happy ending to
be satisfied, and I did cry a little (or a lot, maybe my husband and I had to
watch the credits roll for a little while I regained my composure). But to me the ending was perfect.

So here is what I
learned from this movie on how to give a series a strong end (I’m going to be a
little vague here because I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn’t
seen it).

1.All the stories tie together.I hate the middle filler that you sometimes get
in trilogies.All the stories need to
stand alone, and they all need to build and be connected.

I’m
not saying that that all the movies have to continue the same plot line or
involve the same villain that was not the case in The Dark Night Rises. The
Joker wasn’t involved in the League of Shadows, but the first and second movie
had a strong impact on the third. The
legacy of Harvey Dent and the death of Rachel had a hefty influenced the mental and emotional states of both Bruce Wayne and the people
of Gotham City, and this set the stage for the third movie.

But Bruce Wayne was really what connected
all three stories together. The series
was his story, his evolution. His character
arc goes through the entire three films and ties them all into his story.

2.

Stakes
need to be bigger and the challenge needs to be harder.Honestly how can there be a better villain and
a stronger opponent then Heath Ledger’s Joker?Well, there can’t.IMO, Heath
Ledger’s Joker will go down as one of the best villains of all time.He truly was amazing.So how does The Dark Knight Rises up the
stakes?By starting the movie with Bruce
Wayne already damaged by The Joker.

Batman doesn’t start strong. Rachel’s death has taken a toll on him. He isn’t the man he needs to be to beat
Bane. And a weakened hero against such
a formidable foe (Bane is good, he just isn’t The Joker) makes the stakes
bigger and the challenge harder, and batman struggles in this movie as he has
never struggled before. That is what we
need to see in the final installment of a series.

3. Need to go back to the beginning, and
address the original problem.I’ve heard the saying a lot in writing that
the ending needs to connect with the beginning, and in a series, the ending
movie/book needs to connect with the first book and solve the first problem
presented.

I’m not going to give anything away, but
there are lots of references to the first movie in the last one, and the
original problem of Bruce Wayne trying to find a way to heal is at the heart of
The Dark Knight Rises.

4. Needs to feel like it was all worth it. With all the suffering a character goes
through in three stories, the audience needs to feel that it wasn’t for nothing.Whether the story ends in tragic or triumph,
there needs to a sense of victory in the end, lives saved, hearts changed,
lessons learned, hope restored.The Dark
Knight Rises delivers on this big time.

It has been a long time since I walked away from a movie or
book series feeling this satisfied.
Maybe that’s why The Dark Knight Rises is at the top of my superhero movie
list. Really all three movies in this
series were brilliant. Yes they did have
flaws, they were all a little overwrought in their plots, just too much going
on, but the emotional payoff was huge, and that is the most important element
of storytelling.

12 comments:

I haven't seen the Dark Night Rises, and I don't have any plans to, in spite of the fact that Batman Begins was my favorite superhero movie ever. I don't have a stomach for horror, and I think The Joker moved the whole series to that level. I'm probably in the minority though.

You made some great points about trilogies, which I appreciate, because I have plans for a trilogy. Your comments gave me much to think about. Great post, MaryAnn!

The Dark Knight Rises was more similar to Batman Begins than The Dark Night, IMO. So you may want to give it a try. I know what you mean about horror elements in The Dark Knight, and don't get me wrong The Dark Knight Rises was dark, but it wasn't any darker than Batman Begins, IMO.

I haven't seen it yet, but I gather (being that it was a satisfying ending) that Batman didn't die. Yay!But seriously, that was a great post. I like reading or watching a series, but I prefer to read companion novels. Books set in the same world, with characters featured from earlier works, but which stand alone. Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue. Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, House of Many Ways. I get overwhelmed when a series is more than a few books long. I just can't commit to a character for that many books--not when I'm reading, and not when I'm writing. I think if more authors followed your guidelines, they wouldn't lose me as quickly.Great post MaryAnn!

Hey I just barely saw the movie and I wondered what your blog said about it. I loved the movie too. Although I wonder why movies and TV seem to be getting darker and darker lately. I little bit miss the 80's and actiion adventures just being fun. I do agree that the focus on Bruce Wayne is what makes this series better then the ones in the 90s which I liked. They always seemed more about the villians. I think it was how well rounded the characters were that made this movie. Alfred made me cry when he said that he loved Bruce this the day he heard his cries through the house. How powerful of a connection that was. I liked the side characters the young cop, catwomen, the complexity of Bane.

I hope there are more movies in the future or maybe just Robin movies with no Batman. It sounds interesting to me.